“Little by little, you begin to change even if you are
not aware of it. What was once alien becomes familiar: foreign tongues, the
music of strange instruments, the vagaries of the sea. Slowly you alter until
the very stars that spin in the heavens are as familiar to you as the lines of
your own hands. But first you must step out of your own front door. You must
leave behind what you know and possibly what you love. You must be willing to
lose every inch of yourself, for the next time you look into a stream or a
mirror, which may be weeks, years, or even half a lifetime from now, you will
not recognise your reflection. You must risk this much in order to gain what
the world is ready to offer.
You must make your own map of the world. Search out your
own piece of sky and patch of earth, your own awning to sleep under when it is
raining and it feels the sun may never shine again, for there will certainly be
such days. No one can walk this path for you. You cannot simply follow in
another’s footsteps, as though life were a complicated dance, every turn and
twist memorised and prepared for ahead of time. There are many things in the
world one can inherit: money, land, power, a crown. But an adventure is not one
of them; you must make your own journey.”
Extract from ‘Joan’ by Katherine J. Chen
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